Oliver North visiting Jacksonville's St. Johns Town Center to promote new book 'Counterfeit Lies'

John Pemberton/The Times-Union-10/24/05- Mindy Roberts (left) gets an Ollie for President t-shirt signed by Oliver North (right) as Damon Goude (center) hold the shirt. Oliver North, former staffer of the Ronald Reagan National Security Council and famous for his sale of weapons to Iran, to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. North is now the author of several books and a conservative radio talk show host. North signed copies of his latest book "The Assassins" at the Lifeway Book Store in the St. John's Town Center on Monday.

John Carter, right, has his photo taken with Oliver North on Weds. June 11, 2014 at a book signing event at a Costco in Winchester, Virginia. North is on a national book tour promoting his new novel, Counterfeit Lies. (AP Photo/The Winchester Star, Ginger Perry)

Lt. Col. Oliver North will be at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the St. Johns Town Center at noon today for a book signing to promote his new book “Counterfeit Lies.”

North, the sometimes-controversial author, political commentator and former combat Marine officer came into the spotlight in the mid-1980s in the so-called Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal during the Reagan Administration. North was implicated in a scheme to supply weapons to Iran and divert the funds raised to support guerillas fighting against the Sandanistas in Nicaragua. He was eventually cleared of all charges related to the scandal.

“The insignia that’s on the cover of the book belongs to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran,” North said. “And today, as you and I are talking, the Iranians have several thousand Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members in Baghdad.”

The book’s main character, Jack Kruse, is an undercover FBI agent who moves around a world involving North Korean espionage and Hezbollah terrorist activities. But according to North, the book gives a very realistic account of how Iran will acquire nuclear weapons.

“It is about the next real crisis, which is right around the corner, and that is an Iranian permanent agreement on nuclear weapons,” he said.

U.S. and Iranian officials have in fact been meeting in Geneva with representatives from other nations in so-called “P5+1” talks to negotiate a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The White House labeled the talks as “serious and substantive negotiations with Iran with the goal of reaching a verifiable diplomatic resolution that would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

North is skeptical of the talks and outlines his vision of their outcome in his book.

“What they’re going to do is formally approve the lifting of all sanctions against Iran and open up the flood gates,” he said. “The Iranians are going to agree that they’ve never had nuclear weapons in mind, they’ll never build nuclear weapons and that they’ll welcome the U.N. inspectors.

“This book is about how the Iranians are going to evade those inspections and still get nuclear weapons.”